OSCP Linux Practice Exam

These questions are part of the practice quiz. Start practicing

• If you wish to list the contents of a directory, what permissions must you have for that directory?
• Where are system binaries (programs) stored?
• How do you sort by the 10th character in the 3rd column?
• Which command lowers the niceness of process 100 by 10?
• Which of the following is a valid command to start a service using systemd?
• Which redirection is represented by &> file.txt in Bash?
• What is the purpose of the /etc/fstab file?
• Which command reveals how the shell will interpret a given command, including whether it's a built-in, alias, or function?
• Which command shows all UDP sockets and the programs that are using them?
• In the following sed command what is the g used for? sed 's/bob/jake/g'
• What does ESTABLISHED state indicate in netstat?
• When renaming a file, what permissions are required?
• Which statement best describes the /usr directory in this material?
• What is the output of echo ${hi:-bye} if hi is unset?
• What is the fastest way to create a test file with some sample text?
• What does the following loop do: while read i; echo $i; done < file.txt?
• Why is the permission string 'lrwxrwxrwx' not meaningful for a symbolic link?
• In the permission string drwxrwxr-x, which permission is granted to others?
• Which command interrupts a program that is in the foreground?
• Which directory contains files that are variable, meaning they change constantly, such as database files and log files?
• If you can't remember the name of the variable that lets you run commands from any location, what would you type to find out?
• Which directory is traditionally used for optional software packages?
• Which sequence correctly describes the typical steps to compile software from source?
• In a Bash case statement, which value will trigger dothisthing given the pattern 'case matchWord in 1) dothisthing ;; esac'?
• Which command shows what currently logged-in users are doing?
• In the command 'll &> file.txt', what does the '&>' redirection do?
• Which directory is least associated with system configuration or device files?
• What is the new location for /var/log/messages?
• What does the operation a += 5 do to the variable a?
• Which option do you add to netstat to resolve hostnames to IP addresses in the output?
• Where is the Linux kernel stored?
• Which command reveals how the shell will interpret a command, including if it is a built-in, alias, function, or path?
• Can you use regex as the identifier in a Bash case statement?
• Which command enables a service to run at startup on systemd-based systems?
• After appending 'a cow' and 'a duck' to the animals array, how many elements does the array contain?
• Which account has UID and GID of 0?
• If a command produces no standard error, what will file.txt contain after using 2> file.txt?
• Where do you store source code that is intended to be used by multiple users?
• Which command would you use to view PATH directly?
• With the command > file.txt 2> file2.txt, where do stdout and stderr go?
• How can you use extended regular expressions with grep or sed without using -E or -r?
• Which command sequence would recursively locate all .txt files from the root directory, print each path, then display the first 10 lines of that file, separated by a blank line, while discarding errors?
• When would you not want to use the nice command?
• What happens if you try to use chown on a symbolic link without special options?
• Which statement exits the current loop before its normal ending?
• Process substitution in shells allows feeding the output of multiple commands into another command. Which command demonstrates this technique?
• Which statement about hard links and symbolic links is true?
• Given the Bash array animals defined as ("a dog" "a cat" "a fish"), what does echo ${animals[1]} print?
• Which command changes the owner to 'spankme' and the group to 'baby' for bob.txt?
• What does the command awk '{print $1}' <(ll) <(cat /etc/passwd) do?
• To use a library of functions in a Bash script, which command imports the functions into your script?
• What is the effect of quoting the end marker in a here-document?
• What does a /= 5 do to the variable a?
• Which command can verify a program's installation and locate its path (for example under /usr/local/bin)?
• Which command writes stdout to stdout.txt and stderr to stderr.txt?
• Which command sends a job with ID 1 to the foreground?
• How would you set the same permissions in binary mode?
• Which statement correctly describes the shell parameters $@, $$, and $!?
• In a find command using -exec, what placeholder represents the current file?
• What does the code 'while :; do echo hi; done' do?
• If you wanted to pass arguments to a function that you made, how would you do it?
• When using the ln command to create a link, which argument specifies the name of the link?
• Which command lists the current user’s crontab entries?
• What is the effect of echo test > file.txt 2>&1?
• What does the redirection '2> /dev/null' accomplish in a shell command?
• In Bash arithmetic, what does echo $((a++)) print?
• In a shell, using 'command || exit 1' ensures what behavior?
• Which filter matches packets where IP is 1.1.1.1 and the TCP port is 80?
• What does the <<- redirection do in Bash here documents?
• Which display filter shows only packets with IP address 1.1.1.1?
• Which directory is the primary location for log files in a Linux system?
• You can sort by multiple columns using the sort command by doing what argument?
• How do you perform arithmetic in Bash so that 3 + 3 prints 6?
• In a long directory listing, what does the number 3495253 typically represent?
• How do you create a grep that matches a word that starts with any random character, followed by a lower case b, an upper case C or the numbers 1 through 3, then followed by anything that isn't the number 7 or the number 9, followed by any number of characters and ending with the letter j or any number. OR that matches at least one letter (capital or lower case) followed by exactly 17 numbers
• What is the purpose of local variables in Bash, and how are they created?
• Which control flow statement leaves the current function when executed?
• What are the basic regular expression characters?
• If you wanted to edit /etc/passwd, /etc/shadow, /etc/group, and /etc/gshadow safely, which sequence of commands would you run respectively?
• In the command 'll asdfkjsdfhk > file.txt 2>&1', what does the '2>&1' portion do?
• What does 2> file.txt accomplish?
• In a diff output, what does the change '2a3' mean?
• In the command 'll &> file.txt', which streams are redirected to file.txt?
• Which directory typically contains system-wide configuration files in Linux?
• What type of content does /etc primarily store?
• What is a more efficient way to perform: if grep searchTerm; then echo hi; fi?
• What happens if you make a for loop without 'in blahblah'?
• What are the extended regular expression characters?
• What is the purpose of a here document in shell scripting?
• In Bash, what does the shift command do?
• What is the difference between redirecting stdout with > file and redirecting stderr with 2> file?
• How would you make a SysV-compatible service run at startup?
• Which display filter shows only TCP traffic on port 80?
• Which directory is a virtualized Linux file system that allows you to peek into how the kernel sees things?
• How would you stop a service from starting at startup on SysV-style systems?
• In a Bash case statement, what is the effect of the ;;& operator?
• What is the effect of pressing Ctrl+Z while a process runs in the foreground?
• Which sequence best describes typical steps to compile software from a tarball?
• If you want to create a file in a directory, which permissions must you have?
• What does the arithmetic expression ((i<1?++i:--i)) do?
• What is special about using the -p option with netstat?
• If you're trying to redirect stdout or stderr AND throw a long command that's been piped multiple times and includes multiple commands into the background, how do you need to do it?
• Which of the following is a valid alternative method to locate PATH without using printenv?
• When following a symbolic link, whose permissions determine access?
• Which command prints the contents of a file named file.txt to standard output?
• In Bash, how do you append text immediately after a variable's value without creating a second variable?
• Which of the following represents a valid set of SysV init commands to control the 'apache2' service?
• Which command changes only the group of bob.txt to 'baby'?
• Which sequence sends only standard error to a file while leaving standard output untouched?
• Which line is used to specify the interpreter for a Bash script?
• Which command starts the process of creating a new GPG key pair?
• In Bash, what does the loop for i in "${animals[@]}"; do echo $i; done print?
• Which directory is commonly used as the mount point for removable media such as USB drives on many Linux systems?
• Where are log files stored?
• Which file is used to define system-wide cron jobs in many Linux distributions?
• Which command shows the users currently logged in?
• In the permission string rwx rwx rwx, what does this indicate for user, group, and others?
• What does the loop for ((i=0;i<5;++i)); do echo $i; done print?
• What is the effect of sourcing a file in Bash?
• If you're looking for a man page for a command and nothing shows up (for example read), which resource should you use?
• What directory is the root user's home directory?
• Which characters, if used, indicate you should use single quotes to prevent shell expansion?
• Which command edits the crontab for the current user?
• Which statement best describes [[ expression ]] compared to [ expression ]?
• Which command creates a local variable inside a Bash function?
• If a diff shows '2,4c2,4', what does this indicate about the change?
• Which command sends the job with job id 2 to the background?
• If a script prints an error message to standard error using redirection, what is the conventional exit code to indicate failure?
• What is the effect of > file.txt 2>&1?
• What does a %= 5 do to the variable a?
• Which of the following is a valid use of the 'declare' command when locating PATH?
• To delete a file, what permissions do you need?
• In crontab notation, which day of the week does 6 represent?
• What is special about a negative nice value?
• Which form supports regex matching within a conditional expression, enabling patterns like a string matching a regex?
• Which command lists the public keys stored in your GPG keyring?
• If you encounter an unfamiliar parameter expansion in a Bash script, which manual page should you consult for more information?
• Which command is used to determine which users have logged into the system?
• Which two commands disable and then re-enable shell history recording?
• If you're trying to throw a long command that's been piped multiple times into the background, how should you run it?
• Which directory provides kernel information via a virtual filesystem?
• What is the typical purpose of the /tmp directory in Unix-like systems?
• Which directory is used for variable data such as database files and log files?
• What does the command 'echo $?' display?
• What is the purpose of the plus sign in the date command's format specifier '+%F %T.%N %Z'?
• What prefix is used to run a script located in the current directory when it is not in PATH?
• What exit value does the command 'true' align with and what does that mean?
• Which command decrypts an encrypted archive to produce the original tar.gz file?
• What is another name for a tar.gz file?
• What does the shell parameter $0 store?
• What is the standard alternative syntax to 'source filename' that achieves the same result?
• In Bash arithmetic, what does echo $((++a)) print?
• What does the shell do when you use > file.txt before a command?
• Which directory is typically used for user-specific personal workspaces and data?
• Which command unarchives a tar.gz file?
• Which directory represents a virtualized filesystem that lets you inspect kernel information from user space?
• Which command can show the target of a symbolic link in a detailed listing?
• Which command shows the manual page describing the file format for /etc/fstab?
• Which command demonstrates starting a process with the default niceness value?
• What is the default exit value of a command and what does it signify?
• In the permission string drwxrwxr-x, what does the first character 'd' indicate?
• What's special about -eq compared to = and == ?
• Where is the typical location for source code on a Linux system?
• Which command shows all TCP sockets and the programs that are using them, including listening services?
• In shell scripting, which of the following is a zero exit code typically indicating success?
• Which directory contains device files on a Linux system?
• Which directory is described as the location for user installed binaries (programs)?
• How do you reference a positional parameter after $9?
• What does the diff notation '4d3' indicate?
• Which netstat state indicates the socket is listening for incoming connections?
• Interpret the crontab line: 3 */1 * 3 6 wall hi. Which statement is true?
• How would you add write permission for the owner and read/write permissions for the group to bob.txt using symbolic notation?
• In Bash, which redirection sends both stdout and stderr to the same file?
• Which key combination stops a foreground process so it can be sent to the background?
• What is the effect of using >&2 in a command?
• Where are user directories stored?
• Which command brings job 1 to the foreground?
• Which filter shows all TCP and ICMP packets?
• Which directory stores shared libraries (.so)?
• What exit value does the command 'false' align with and what does that mean?
• What is the difference between ${hi:-bye} and ${hi:=bye}?
• Which expression sets a default value for a variable if it is unset or empty?
• Which directory stores system binaries (programs)?
• In the command 'll asdfkjsdfhk > file.txt 2>&1', which streams are written to file.txt?
• Which command should you run to view the file format information for /etc/fstab?
• Which command outputs the target path of a symbolic link?
• In a Bash loop, what does 'continue' do?
• Which command encrypts a tar.gz archive using the public key associated with Evan?
• In crontab notation, which month does 3 represent?
• Which command creates a tar.gz archive from a file named file.txt?
• In a diff output, what does a line starting with '<' denote?
• Which line is used at the start of a Bash script to specify the interpreter?
• What is the effect of using prefix ++var versus postfix var++ in Bash arithmetic expansion?
• What are the symbols for boolean AND, OR, NOT in Bash and what is notable about their behavior?
• In a here document, what does the delimiter mark?